Terrence O'Brien
is the Verge’s weekend editor. He’s covered the tech industry for over 18 years and knows a thing or two about synths.
Suno is facing yet another pair of lawsuits. A group of rights holders of Elvis Presley’s music and the publisher of some of Eminem‘s biggest records are suing the AI music company, claiming it illegally generates music and lyrics that mimic those artists. The lawyers in the Presley suit claim that Suno has violated Tennessee’s Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, which makes it illegal for an AI company to clone a singer’s voice.
In the suit, lawyers representing Presley’s rights holders argue that “Suno has mechanically encoded itself with artists’ identities, hard-work, creativity, and time, and harnessed them all for a consistent conveyor belt of
cold hard cash.“ These suits closely mirror one filed by Jason Isbell and others in September, which claimed Suno created imitations of the plaintiffs but did not claim copyright infringement directly.
Later in the complaint, the lawyers write that “Suno’s ravenous race to the bottom aims to make human creativity obsolete, coldly replicating without a license in seconds what takes years to learn, struggle with, maintain, and endlessly attempt to make better and perfect.”
Suno spokesperson Cat McCormack told The Verge that, “Suno exists to help people create new, original music, not to trade on anyone’s name or likeness, and we prohibit any unauthorized use of an artist’s work. To protect against this, we do not allow prompts for specific artists’ names and songs and work with third-party providers to screen uploaded audio files and lyrics for potential misuse. We are always working to strengthen our guardrails and we will continue to add new safeguards that protect artists and our users.”
This adds to the pile of lawsuits Suno is currently facing from Sony, UMG, Isbell, Reservoir Media, and more.
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